How much is the Queen's head worth? Royal Mail sell off should reveal all

To the surprise of no one whatsoever, the government has officially announced that the Royal Mail will be privatised ‘in the coming weeks’, with shares up for grabs to both the public and monied-up investment groups.

Royal Mail employees will be given 10% of the shares with the rest of it thrown into the wind like those red rubber bands that birds can easily choke to death on. If you want to invest, you’ll need to punt up at least £750.

Not surprisingly, the Communication Workers Union is kicking right off about all of this and is going to ballot its members for strike action, which wouldn’t take place before 10 October.

This might explain why the government has said that privatisation will take place ‘in the coming weeks’ – rushing it through will protect the Royal Mail from too much strike-flavoured damage. Classy move.

It remains to be seen how much privatisation will affect the consumer – the six-day-a-week delivery service is enshrined in the law and shouldn’t be affected by the sell-off.

14 comments

3 years agobadger

"The six-day-a-week delivery service is enshrined in the law".
So they'll change the law.

Noone will pay for the true cost of providing the six day a week delivery service, put the price of a stamp up 2p people go mad, let alone the amount that it really needs.
That is why this sort of things happens to sweeten the deal.

once those routes considered unprofitable disappear....and being charged to pick up your package and other money making scams appear...you can say good bye to the postman...who will then become....a salesman!!

What are the chances that this will improve Royal Mail's absolute joke of a service that loses a lot of mail, fails to deliver almost 10% of mail on time, closes down most of the post offices and leaves the rest only open part time?
Fuck all? That's what I thought.....
The fact that Royal Mail is so shit is absolutely unforgivable considering that they are a monopoly - nobody is allowed to try to compete, and even if they were, the rival company would have to invest billions to create an infrastructure of post-boxes, post-offices, post-vans, employees, sorting offices, etc and this is not practical in any way, shape or form.

@JonB
Yes, but it is all the same piss-poor infrastructure. The Royal Mail and Post Office are so intertwined that they might as well be considered the same company. One cannot work without the other.
And to correct your comment to Sarah, Royal Mail is the company that delivers/loses your Amazon and eBay parcels in a rather slow inefficient way.